eBay "Standard Envelope" Woes. Help? Advice? Complain With Me?

[pewe]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

A good portion of my parcels don't get a single scan until delivery...if that. But I assume they eventually get there because I don't receive any complaints from the buyer(s).

As a buyer I can mirror the same challenge: I have one right now that I don’t think I’ve received. Challenge is all cards that come this was are usually unnumbered base cards, and have no distinguishing feature vs. others I may already have. I’d have to count a stack and do math on all shipments expected to see if I’m light a card. Too much work for a $10 card


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[dwillard]

Originally Posted by GrahamMoonlight

USPS is a poorly run business that's trying to nickel and dime everyone now. Stop all the sweetheart pensions for their workers and they'll have money to burn.

Also, slowing the delivery times while hiking the costs to ship anything is a moronic business model. If USPS was a private company, they would have gone out of business many years ago.

Well if USPS was privately run then they wouldn’t have congress mandate that they take 5 billion a year off the top and put it into future pension funds. They wouldn’t have a president install a ceo for the sole purpose of slowing down the entire operation and making it as inefficient as possible. But don’t let facts get in the way of your ramblings.

[danthemansstore]

Originally Posted by SteigerWRX

Wow, so many people in this discussion, its good to see. There are several things I want to address in this post, but I will start with this one first...



There is so much wrong with this post. Not sure if you are having a bad day, failing to get your point across in a decent manner or if you really are just that type of person. Everything you posted sounds like the LAZY mentality. So if I understand you correctly, if there is a program that is supposed to function a certain way, that you pay for, that buyers AND sellers rely on, that doesn't work.... everyone should just be cool with that and find work arounds instead? THAT sounds like the laziest thing to do in that situation. Trying to fix an issue effecting MANY is not letting eBay "run" anyone's life. Its trying to help something effecting a hobby most of us genuinely enjoy. I went out to get answers about WHY this suddenly happened. I started this post EXLPAINING what happened to me and ASKING if others experienced these same issues. None of that is "complaining". That is DISCUSSING this program and how it has faired for others. That's literally the exact purpose of a DISCUSSION BOARD, commonly referred to as a "forum".

To everyone else......

Like I said above, I have been doing this as well for about 2 months, a total of about 500 or so sales, and these 2 weeks have been the only real issues. I did not know if there was a chance I had not read about or what.

I too have had to file several claims at this point with no real issue with getting refunded. Once I hadnt gotten a refund in about a week so I had to contact the third party company that processes the claims to see why. I was told they needed better screenshots of the sale from eBay (which no one reached out to tell me).

The biggest issue is I use this program to undercut other sellers. So I sell A LOT of $19.99 cards under this program. Autos, cards numbered to 10 or less, etc. For example, if I have a card that usually sells for $30. All day $30. I sell for $19.99. With the thought process of instead of paying $4ish dollars in shipping, I'm paying $.78 or whatever. Already a savings of $3 dollars so the equivalnt of selling for $30 and netting $26 after shippoing BEFORE fee's. Then the fees to sell are slightly less ($2 vs $3), so another dollar saved bringing it down to netting $25. Then factoring in the fee insurance when selling for $19.99 vs $30. In the end I am only losing out $2-$3 selling for $19.99 instead of $30 AND I'm guaranteeing my card is going to sell before the others do. Money back in quick.

So thats how I utilize this program. Which means more often than not, when these claims come in I'm refunding $20 2-5 times in a batch and having to wait the 30 days to file a claim to get my money back (upwards of $100) AND now I'm having some buyers questioning my integrity and selling practices. It gets annoying reading the "have you even shipped this yet?", "where is my card?", "why haven't you mailed this yet?" to cards that should have since arrived. Out of the 500 or so sent I would honestly guess MAYBE 50 have a "delivered" scan. Everything else has been relying on the honesty of the buyer to leave me feedback.

I think eBay needs to adjust how quickly a buyer can file a claim under this shipping service. Ive had cards take 25 days from the day of shipment till the day of delivery. Yet I'll have buyers be allowed to open a claim against me after 5 days. How is that fair? Is it because my handling time is 1 day? If I change that to like 2 weeks or whatever will it stop them from being able to open a claim so quickly? Its not fair to the buyer OR the seller to have to wait 30 days for a refund.

I think one option that is overlooked is Informed Delivery. I ask any non-recipient of said ESE purchases if they use that function by USPS. The images are being scanned for the customers so if it doesn’t get scanned and they use that service I’ll refund almost immediately. I believe all ESE recipients should be automatically enrolled to confirm the last step arrival. Of course mail will be lost and there will be mail workers who don’t understand these specific dynamics that are allowed for eBay packages but not all packages. Hopefully the program can get more reassurance in the future for both buyer and seller and limit the losses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[crossada]

Originally Posted by dwillard

Well if USPS was privately run then they wouldn’t have congress mandate that they take 5 billion a year off the top and put it into future pension funds. They wouldn’t have a president install a ceo for the sole purpose of slowing down the entire operation and making it as inefficient as possible. But don’t let facts get in the way of your ramblings.

That 5 billion off the top broke the post office instantly. Before that it ran smoothly every year. Funny thing is the government took that pension fund money with an I OWE YOU so it isn't even there.

[Archangel1775]

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

[Pacmeyer]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

I wonder what the dollar limit is for sellers who go by an envelope is an envelope.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

So if you purchased a $20 card that had free shipping, and it arrived safely with the ESU system, you would leave a negative just for fun? I don't understand that. People always complain about crazy shipping prices, then when an alternative is presented, they complain it wasn't shipped at the higher rates.

[dwillard]

Originally Posted by crossada

That 5 billion off the top broke the post office instantly. Before that it ran smoothly every year. Funny thing is the government took that pension fund money with an I OWE YOU so it isn't even there.

Absolutely!

[cj828282]

I always note in my listings that a PWE will be used with tracking provided. Both sellers and buyers have options. As a buyer I don't have any issues buying cards with the cheaper shipping rates and have not had any damage issues for cards in PWE. I have had damage issues with bubble mailers and small flat rate boxes.

[towerymt]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

I ship up to $20 cards in plain envelopes, per the ebay allowance. I charge $1.25 shipping. Do you just avoid the listings with cheap (<$2) shipping?

I've had one or two claim it never arrived, so I filed for the refund and got it. It's odd they'll refund the card value, but not the postage paid. Now that I've done a couple and know it works, I'll refund the buyer immediately and I'll wait the 30 days to submit the claim.

I've had the same issue everyone has, the tracking. Had a buyer contact me about a card that didn't arrive, but tracking said it was delivered. He actually got it 3 days after it said it was delivered. Usually it's by the next day.

If I buy a card and it arrives without the tracking showing that it was delivered, I contact the seller to let them know, and I leave positive feedback at that time. This will help me remember not to make a claim in the future that I never got a card, when in fact I did.

[JeffG1954]

The way one of my local postal clerks explained it to me is like this....only the $0.53 should be getting scanned into the system, not the $0.73 or $0.93. The two higher rates are supposed to be non-machinable, which means they would not be going thru the sorting machines, and the sorting machines are the only place that these get scanned. While some, if not most, of the two higher cost envelopes still do end up going thru the sorting machine, some are handled correctly and not scanned at all. That is why some seem to drop off the radar after they have been incorrectly scanned in....the post office who ran the stiffer envelopes thru the machine are wrong, and somewhere down the line another post office does it correctly and does not put it thru the sorting machine, so no updated scans. If you are putting a $0.53 label on one of those eBay recommended mailers, you are wrong and they should be returned to you or sent with postage due....and they should never be scanned. That is the way he explained it to me....kind of makes sense.

[msink28]

I have used eBay standard envelope with great success. It's a game-changer for me. I made a New Year's resolution to sell off a bunch of low-end/junk GU/serial-numbered/autos in the $1-10 range. I decided something was better than nothing. Occasionally will sell a card in the $15-20 range.

I use the small sealable #10 plain white envelopes that you can get at any office supply store. I charge $1.50 to the buyer and send the card in a new penny sleeve, new top loader, and team bag with an occasional couple of decoys if the card is on the higher end of the range. If a buyer complains, I have a 14-day return policy in addition to what eBay offers. Buyers do not complain because the cards are priced competitively and because they are utterly sick of getting cards packaged in Wal-Mart bags, seven varieties of tape, three varieties of cardboard, nine-pocket pages, you get the drift. If the card gets damaged by USPS, they can get a refund from me, but I don't want anyone damaging the card because of bizarre packaging.

$1.50 covers most of the fees and shipping costs below $10, so I get the full price of the card. I can then offer the card at or around the lowest comparable price on eBay.

My advice would be to skip the pricey envelopes, use a method like this, and just stick the cards in the blue mailbox. I never get a ruling from a clerk. How are those people supposed to keep track of 90 different agreements from 90 different vendors.

[rms13]

I’ve bought about 100 cards with standard shipping in the past 2-3 months. All $2-4 including shipping. Most have arrived with no problem. I’ve had a few that took up to a month to arrive. I’ve had 4 that never arrived and all but one seller refunded without an issue. One seller still hasn’t refunded the $1 for card or sent replacement a month after contacting them and I’ve given up on that one. One guy sent me a card that was shipped in only a penny sleeve taped to a piece of lined writing paper in an envelope and amazingly it arrived in good condition. The rest were either in top loader or card saver in pwe. Even with a small percentage of issues I prefer this as a buyer for cheap PC cards. I’m not interested in paying $5 shipping for $2 cards.

[PSA2Pac]

Originally Posted by SteigerWRX

There is so much wrong with this post. Not sure if you are having a bad day, failing to get your point across in a decent manner or if you really are just that type of person. Everything you posted sounds like the LAZY mentality. So if I understand you correctly, if there is a program that is supposed to function a certain way, that you pay for, that buyers AND sellers rely on, that doesn't work.... everyone should just be cool with that and find work arounds instead? THAT sounds like the laziest thing to do in that situation. Trying to fix an issue effecting MANY is not letting eBay "run" anyone's life. .

Since when is finding a solution the ‘lazy’ way of doing things? I’d prefer to spend my time getting items to my customers. This isn’t really an issue you or I can fix. You can bring up it up with both eBay and usps but, at the end of the day, if there’s an actionable step I can take (even if it’s a bandaid for the time being), I’d rather make that decision, instead of continuing to try to fit an eBay square peg thru a usps round hole. It’s not my program so, unfortunately, I don’t have any leverage to fix it.

At the end of the day, this is a quick fix that you refuse to partake in. That’s definitely your choice. Time and place for everything, and I get trying to participate in programs correctly, but until eBay/usps gets this sorted out, we can either do what works or keep trying to do what should work, with fingers/toes crossed

Originally Posted by msink28

I have used eBay standard envelope with great success. It's a game-changer for me.

I use the small sealable #10 plain white envelopes that you can get at any office supply store.

My advice would be to skip the pricey envelopes, use a method like this, and just stick the cards in the blue mailbox. I never get a ruling from a clerk. How are those people supposed to keep track of 90 different agreements from 90 different vendors.

Easy peasy. OP refuses to use pwe’s though.

Originally Posted by mc1

The issue appears to be at the level of the LOCAL postal employees. Neither USPS or Ebay polices are to blame here. The problem seems to be the interpretation of rules by the local employees.

Plain white envelopes are working fine, if you believe many of the sellers that have shared their experiences.

Absolutely the problem. My local po has tenured employees that have been there forever-ever.. none of them know anything of the program, nor ever scan any of my packages I sendvia this method.

But all of them made it to their destination (thankfully)

[RL 1953]

Article Number
000003137
Customer Information


A nonmachinable mailpiece is a mailpiece that must be sorted outside of the standard, automated mail process. Because it is more expensive to processes these mailpieces, a surcharge applies to them.

The nonmachinable surcharge is added to First-Class Mail® with any of the following criteria:

For pieces more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long, the thickness is less than 0.009 inch
The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5 (length is the dimension parallel to the address)
It is poly-bagged, poly-wrapped, enclosed in any plastic material, or has an exterior surface made of a material that is not paper
It has clasps, strings, buttons, or similar closure devices
It is too rigid or contains items such as pens, keys or coins that cause the thickness of the mailpiece to be uneven
It has a delivery address parallel to the shorter dimension of the mailpiece

[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

I ship everything $20 and under in PWE. Please don't buy from me.

[towerymt]

Originally Posted by msink28

I have used eBay standard envelope with great success. It's a game-changer for me. I made a New Year's resolution to sell off a bunch of low-end/junk GU/serial-numbered/autos in the $1-10 range. I decided something was better than nothing. Occasionally will sell a card in the $15-20 range.

Same. I have a lot of dollar-box or slightly better cards that other collectors may want, so I've been listing mine in batches. The thermal printer was really the difference maker. Cutting out labels and taping them onto envelopes took way too long.

I've had a couple go in the $20+ to 30 range, and one just hit $70. If it clears $20, I'll gladly eat the cost to ship first class, because it went for more than I thought it would sell for.

Having finally figured out the best way to batch-print packing slips & labels...next round should be even quicker.

[LCM1223]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

Damn,
I’d be irritated if someone sent a $10 card PWE, a $20 PWE one you’re getting a negative. EbayuserID is “eatit”

Ooh! Ouch! This take was so hot I burnt my finger on it

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

I ship everything $20 and under in PWE. Please don't buy from me.

Ditto

[Pacmeyer]

Originally Posted by RL 1953

Article Number
000003137
Customer Information


A nonmachinable mailpiece is a mailpiece that must be sorted outside of the standard, automated mail process. Because it is more expensive to processes these mailpieces, a surcharge applies to them.

The nonmachinable surcharge is added to First-Class Mail® with any of the following criteria:

For pieces more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long, the thickness is less than 0.009 inch
The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5 (length is the dimension parallel to the address)
It is poly-bagged, poly-wrapped, enclosed in any plastic material, or has an exterior surface made of a material that is not paper
It has clasps, strings, buttons, or similar closure devices
It is too rigid or contains items such as pens, keys or coins that cause the thickness of the mailpiece to be uneven
It has a delivery address parallel to the shorter dimension of the mailpiece

Not just a surcharge for the rigid mailers but they may be processed as packages instead. That makes this type of envelope best for things like 8x10s and magazines that would otherwise be mangled in a manila envelope.

They generally aren't worth the extra expense and potential hassle for low value cards. Of course everyone's definition of low value may differ.

[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by SteigerWRX

There is so much wrong with this post. Not sure if you are having a bad day, failing to get your point across in a decent manner or if you really are just that type of person. Everything you posted sounds like the LAZY mentality. So if I understand you correctly, if there is a program that is supposed to function a certain way, that you pay for, that buyers AND sellers rely on, that doesn't work.... everyone should just be cool with that and find work arounds instead? THAT sounds like the laziest thing to do in that situation. Trying to fix an issue effecting MANY is not letting eBay "run" anyone's life. Its trying to help something effecting a hobby most of us genuinely enjoy. I went out to get answers about WHY this suddenly happened. I started this post EXLPAINING what happened to me and ASKING if others experienced these same issues. None of that is "complaining". That is DISCUSSING this program and how it has faired for others. That's literally the exact purpose of a DISCUSSION BOARD, commonly referred to as a "forum".

Says the guy who put "complain with me" in the title of his thread.

Classic.

You literally threatened to discontinue this service for your customers, but I'm the lazy one? You've admitted that buyers are questioning your integrity, but I'm wrong?

I'll step away so you can sort out your issues. I have PWE's that need to be shipped to buyers who won't ask me where there card is or why I haven't shipped yet.

[SteigerWRX]

So, I will now be trying the experiment of "let's see if these customers $20 Jerseys and autos get to them". I wanted to add some pictures in here. I have no idea what order Tapatalk will post them, if at all.

Front and back picture of your I package all my cards sold. Brand new sleeve, brand new toploader, brand new team bag and a piece of cardboard.

Picture of the previous style of eBay branded (and ENCOURAGED mailers)

Pictures of the previous style of eBay branded (and ENCOURAGED mailers) getting returned to me.

Picture of the new broke-as-a-joke style PWE security envelopes being used on today's dropoffs.















Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[SteigerWRX]

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

Says the guy who put "complain with me" in the title of his thread.

Classic.

You literally threatened to discontinue this service for your customers, but I'm the lazy one?

You've admitted that buyers are questioning your integrity, but I'm wrong?


I'll step away so you can sort out your issues. I have PWE's that need to be shipped to buyers who won't ask me where there card is or why I haven't shipped yet.

Threatened to discontinue a service to be found unreliable? Absolutely

I sincerely hope, assuming you are an intelligent person, that even you would be able to tell I did NOT admit to sellers questioning my integrity through ANY actions of my own. That alone lets me know you were stretching as far as you can to try to make a point. I am relying on a service to be provided by TWO different outside sources in order to get my item from me to a buyer. USPS could lose every single package I sent one day, having dozens or hundreds of buyers "questioning my integrity" on if I mailed them their item or not. That is an uneducated or undereducated person questioning the wrong party involved. I cant even believe I choose to respond to that but no, Mr Multiple Negative Feedbacks... sorry auctonjmm, customer are not questioning MY integrity for anything I have done.

And you're right, customers wont question were their card is from you. Got me there. They will just question why they were over charged, sent a card in no protection and that they received beat up cards instead.

[mc1]

Good luck, I hope the extra cardboard doesnt cause any issues for you. Hope some USPS employee will not kick some of these back for being “too rigid”.

[SteigerWRX]

Originally Posted by mc1

Good luck, I hope the extra cardboard doesnt cause any issues for you. Hope some USPS employee will not kick some of these back for being “too rigid”.

Appreciate it. I'm out of ideas past that. I'm sure I'll lose sales but I'd just have to revert to full cost shipping at that point. I'll report back when this batch is delivered, returned or "lost".

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by SteigerWRX

Appreciate it. I'm out of ideas past that. I'm sure I'll lose sales but I'd just have to revert to full cost shipping at that point. I'll report back when this batch is delivered, returned or "lost".

I too would drop the extra cardboard. That will be the cause of potential rejection for these. It isn't needed. If a card gets bent in half without it, it will get bent in half with it too. People put too much emphasis on the little bit of extra protection. I truly do not think it helps anything.